(no subject)
So while I did mean to update at Heathrow, I didn't really get the time for it and we flew onto Manchester before I had the chance to do so.
Let me say right now that flying economy on such a long flight is a bad idea. Unfortunately for people like Craig and I who just plain can't afford the extra $2000 each per person, if we want to ever come to the UK again, it's going to be much the same. 12 hours after we've landed and my feet and ankles are still painfully swollen. I've been told it will go down after a good night's sleep so here's to hoping. Won't talk too much about the flight. It wasn't pleasant and I'm glad I won't have to look at another plane for another 4 weeks.
Things in the UK are crazy different! They all travel down the highways at 100 miles per hour, and that's only the recommended speed!
There are very few Japanese cars and fuel is at 1.09 pounds per litre. Which is about double what we currently pay. But to offset this, there are many more electric cars and most people drive extremely fuel efficient european cars.
People drink a lot and will quite happilly bring their dogs to the pub. And it is not only tollerated,it seems to be encouraged!
The alcohol is also about half the price that we pay for it in australia and the food is great. Had a pub dinner and I ordered beef strogonoff. Best strog I've ever had..! Also had a quick snack at McDonalds (yes, yes, I know but we were in a hurry) and the menu is completely different. I had this fantastic chicken burger with swiss cheese, relish and lettuce. It was great!
One second you are driving through a town and then suddenly with no warning whatsoever, you're driving through pristine countryside. And then a few minutes later hello town, again with no warning!
We're currently in a "tiny little village" called Shotton. Personally I don't think it's tiny. It's about the same size as Greenbushes but with a commercial district and about the population of, say, South Hedland.
The town roads are very skinny and people will simply park on the side of the road where there is traffic both ways which travels around 40-60 mph. That gave me a couple of heart attacks.
The day light hours are mad. Absolutely insane. We flew in at about half four and it was as light as Perth currently is at 9am. Right now, it's just gone 10:30pm and yes, the sun only just went down. What The Fuck.
The people we are staying with are a married gay couple. I am glad they live in the UK and were able to get married. I wish Australia would follow in those footsteps. Also Mark and Steve are great fun and wonderful people.
ASDA is huge. And amazing. And we should get them if they were legal in WA. They're basically a combination of Coles and Kmart or Woolworths and Big W in one huge store that is open 24 hours a day, 6 days a week. On Sundays they have to shut at 10pm or something I believe. I like this.
So all that aside, and I'm sure I'll update that list as I go along, things are going well. We flew into London around 4:30am as I mentioned then did the customs thing which was surprisingly easy then popped onto the Manchester flight which was slightly delayed but what can you do.
Heathrow is huge. Amazingly huge. You have to travel by bus to get from one terminal to another and there are hundreds of planes everywhere. To taxi from where we landed to get to our terminal took a good 15-20 minutes. It's huge.
Anyway, flew to Manchester, grabbed our bags (Which we hadn't seen since we checked in in Perth) then wandereds off to get our hire car. By this point, we'd been in those clothes or over 30 hours and I'm pretty sure we reeked. I was dying for a shower but we went and visited Craig's Great Aunt and Uncle which was good before going to Steve and Mark's where Craig and I settled our stuff and had our long awaited showers.
Once we'd done that, we all went to ASDA so that the boys could do their weekly shopping and Craig and I wanted sim cards for our phones. Turns out that 3 UK sim cards don't workin 3 Australia phones. Wasn't happy but there's not much we can do. Steve's lent us one of his old phones to use and charge so at least we can contact Craig's parents.
After the shopping trip, we came home for a nap (only an hour :() and then went out with the family to the local pub for dinner around 6:30. From there we went to the other local pub but I was getting too tired. I mean honestly, other than the bit of sleep I got on the plane an the hour here, I've not slept since Thursday morning when I woke up at 7:30 and (Perth time) i's now almost 6am on Saturday. So I'm really running on empty though I think I've managed to convert myself to UK time quite quickly. I just really need to sleep :P Thankfully Craig's grandmother and Mark wanted to head off too so I wasn't alone.
Tomorrow we're going to Chester to have a look and do some shopping then off to ... some Welsh-named-town that I can't pronounce let alone spell. It has an aqueduct though, or so I'm told.
Sleep time now, ttfn
Let me say right now that flying economy on such a long flight is a bad idea. Unfortunately for people like Craig and I who just plain can't afford the extra $2000 each per person, if we want to ever come to the UK again, it's going to be much the same. 12 hours after we've landed and my feet and ankles are still painfully swollen. I've been told it will go down after a good night's sleep so here's to hoping. Won't talk too much about the flight. It wasn't pleasant and I'm glad I won't have to look at another plane for another 4 weeks.
Things in the UK are crazy different! They all travel down the highways at 100 miles per hour, and that's only the recommended speed!
There are very few Japanese cars and fuel is at 1.09 pounds per litre. Which is about double what we currently pay. But to offset this, there are many more electric cars and most people drive extremely fuel efficient european cars.
People drink a lot and will quite happilly bring their dogs to the pub. And it is not only tollerated,it seems to be encouraged!
The alcohol is also about half the price that we pay for it in australia and the food is great. Had a pub dinner and I ordered beef strogonoff. Best strog I've ever had..! Also had a quick snack at McDonalds (yes, yes, I know but we were in a hurry) and the menu is completely different. I had this fantastic chicken burger with swiss cheese, relish and lettuce. It was great!
One second you are driving through a town and then suddenly with no warning whatsoever, you're driving through pristine countryside. And then a few minutes later hello town, again with no warning!
We're currently in a "tiny little village" called Shotton. Personally I don't think it's tiny. It's about the same size as Greenbushes but with a commercial district and about the population of, say, South Hedland.
The town roads are very skinny and people will simply park on the side of the road where there is traffic both ways which travels around 40-60 mph. That gave me a couple of heart attacks.
The day light hours are mad. Absolutely insane. We flew in at about half four and it was as light as Perth currently is at 9am. Right now, it's just gone 10:30pm and yes, the sun only just went down. What The Fuck.
The people we are staying with are a married gay couple. I am glad they live in the UK and were able to get married. I wish Australia would follow in those footsteps. Also Mark and Steve are great fun and wonderful people.
ASDA is huge. And amazing. And we should get them if they were legal in WA. They're basically a combination of Coles and Kmart or Woolworths and Big W in one huge store that is open 24 hours a day, 6 days a week. On Sundays they have to shut at 10pm or something I believe. I like this.
So all that aside, and I'm sure I'll update that list as I go along, things are going well. We flew into London around 4:30am as I mentioned then did the customs thing which was surprisingly easy then popped onto the Manchester flight which was slightly delayed but what can you do.
Heathrow is huge. Amazingly huge. You have to travel by bus to get from one terminal to another and there are hundreds of planes everywhere. To taxi from where we landed to get to our terminal took a good 15-20 minutes. It's huge.
Anyway, flew to Manchester, grabbed our bags (Which we hadn't seen since we checked in in Perth) then wandereds off to get our hire car. By this point, we'd been in those clothes or over 30 hours and I'm pretty sure we reeked. I was dying for a shower but we went and visited Craig's Great Aunt and Uncle which was good before going to Steve and Mark's where Craig and I settled our stuff and had our long awaited showers.
Once we'd done that, we all went to ASDA so that the boys could do their weekly shopping and Craig and I wanted sim cards for our phones. Turns out that 3 UK sim cards don't workin 3 Australia phones. Wasn't happy but there's not much we can do. Steve's lent us one of his old phones to use and charge so at least we can contact Craig's parents.
After the shopping trip, we came home for a nap (only an hour :() and then went out with the family to the local pub for dinner around 6:30. From there we went to the other local pub but I was getting too tired. I mean honestly, other than the bit of sleep I got on the plane an the hour here, I've not slept since Thursday morning when I woke up at 7:30 and (Perth time) i's now almost 6am on Saturday. So I'm really running on empty though I think I've managed to convert myself to UK time quite quickly. I just really need to sleep :P Thankfully Craig's grandmother and Mark wanted to head off too so I wasn't alone.
Tomorrow we're going to Chester to have a look and do some shopping then off to ... some Welsh-named-town that I can't pronounce let alone spell. It has an aqueduct though, or so I'm told.
Sleep time now, ttfn